vintageiron Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Wow been a while since I signed in here. Moved and baby on the way now so I haven't had much time to do any kits... Anyway, I watched Cars for the first time last night with my step son. I actually thought it was a fun film! Anyway, I got inspired to make a Richard Petty #43 Plymouth Superbird out of one of my Revell Superbird kits. I need help. I need to find some resin parts, maybe some photo etched parts like the extra center hood pin, nascar wheels from the 70's (I've seen these online), roll cage, ideas modifying the interior bucket, the motor setup with the correct intake and all, etc... And most of all, LOTS of reference photos! I've been searching google, but I can't find a whole lot showing the inside of the car, the tail of the car, and especially the under hood. Please help! I did find window net and decals on ebay that might work... Window net Another window net Petty decals Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diymirage Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 sounds like a nobel cause i have a 69 charger and some parts that might work for you would the 69 be a good mockup for this to see if the parts (rollgace mainly) fit your bird? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCS Motorsport Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 I've had a Petty conversion of the Revell Superbird "in progress" for several years now. Biggist issue I had was sanding the vinyl roof off of it. The Petty decals included in one release of the kit (street version with Petty decals on it) are actually those he ran at the mid year Riverside 400 road race. Richard Shouse RCS Motorsport Models of Texas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LUKE'57 Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Hey Brent, here's where to find pretty much everything you wanted to know, thought you wanted to know or could imagine to know about vintage stock car modeling with some really good info on the winged cars. http://www.randyayersmodeling.com/modelingforum/viewforum.php?f=15 Great bunch of guys, tell'em LUKE'57 sent'cha. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 Wow been a while since I signed in here. Moved and baby on the way now so I haven't had much time to do any kits... Anyway, I watched Cars for the first time last night with my step son. I actually thought it was a fun film! Anyway, I got inspired to make a Richard Petty #43 Plymouth Superbird out of one of my Revell Superbird kits. I need help. I need to find some resin parts, maybe some photo etched parts like the extra center hood pin, nascar wheels from the 70's (I've seen these online), roll cage, ideas modifying the interior bucket, the motor setup with the correct intake and all, etc... And most of all, LOTS of reference photos! I've been searching google, but I can't find a whole lot showing the inside of the car, the tail of the car, and especially the under hood. Please help! I did find window net and decals on ebay that might work... Window net Another window net Petty decals PM me with you e mail address and I'll send you all the pics of the Superbird and engines and such that I have. They only ran the car for a year before NASCAR said no more wings. So you wont find much info on the car or pics at all. I've been lucky to collect some here and there and seen one of them so close that I could breath on it. I was in Petty's shop in '78 and placed my hands on a Magnum while they were prepping it for a race for the next weekend. Something you could never get away with today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted April 24, 2010 Share Posted April 24, 2010 sounds like a nobel cause i have a 69 charger and some parts that might work for you would the 69 be a good mockup for this to see if the parts (rollgace mainly) fit your bird? It might help some, but not really. The roofs are different between the Charger body and the 70 Road Runner body. It might be close though. There's not a lot roll cage in those cars back then compared with what they have today. There's any body parts that will swap between the two either. The nose is different and so is the wing shape between the two. I'd have to check, but I don't think the fender vents are even the same. Since I brought that up, most everyone things those vents are made to vent the air away from the fender wells. That is not so. During testing of the Daytona it made so much down force the tires were rubbing the fenders and blowing out or at least to the point of cording. So they cut holes in the fenders so they could continue testing. Running out of time, they just made the vent to cover the holes. Now that's engineering there. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted April 26, 2010 Author Share Posted April 26, 2010 Okay, so if I were to buy a cheap kit and take the cage, what kit offers a cage that is the closest fit? If I'm going to use it for parts, I don't want to spend a lot. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diymirage Posted April 26, 2010 Share Posted April 26, 2010 this may be a farcry but i have a rollcage from a firebird that just might do the trick ill test fit it in the suberbee (since my charger doesnt have a interior tub) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted April 27, 2010 Share Posted April 27, 2010 Okay, so if I were to buy a cheap kit and take the cage, what kit offers a cage that is the closest fit? If I'm going to use it for parts, I don't want to spend a lot. Any ideas? You wont find one to match. Best thing is to make it out or styrene rods. Get you osme reference pics and build away. IT's easy to do. The main hoop can be bent out of one piece and everything else will mostly be straight pieces. The drivers side door bars will have some slight bends in them as long as the a pillars, but other than that, pretty much straight. When you want to joint an end to a round tube, just take a knife and fish mouth the end of the round tube and it will fit right in place. That's exactly how we build all of our real cages as well as the NASCAR bunch too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken#5fan Posted April 28, 2010 Share Posted April 28, 2010 I have a superbird build on the back burner. My plan is to use a Johan Petty Superbird body on an AMT 68 Roadrunner chassis. I will be scratch building the roll cage and using resin tires & wheels available from BSR. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 6, 2010 Author Share Posted May 6, 2010 What about the Johan kits? I hear they are pretty nice. Do they come with the roll cage? How about the correct racing hemi intake and air cleaner? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted May 7, 2010 Share Posted May 7, 2010 What about the Johan kits? I hear they are pretty nice. Do they come with the roll cage? How about the correct racing hemi intake and air cleaner? They are expensive, can be built stock or race, have a roll cage, and they are no where close to being correct. I used to have one till we had a fire several years ago. The only thing I have left of it is the engine out of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 8, 2010 Author Share Posted May 8, 2010 Well, I wish I would have asked these questions about the Jo-Han and Monogram Petty SuperBird kits before I spent the money. Well, if anyone wants them I'd love to get some money back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 8, 2010 Author Share Posted May 8, 2010 This guy on Flickr did a very sweet looking Petty SuperBird from the Revell/Monogram kit. Monogram Petty SuperBird build I just wish I knew where to get the right cage and hemi like he used. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 (edited) This guy on Flickr did a very sweet looking Petty SuperBird from the Revell/Monogram kit. Monogram Petty SuperBird build I just wish I knew where to get the right cage and hemi like he used. I looked that over and it's not bad. Still a lot of it is wrong, but it aint bad. It's got the correct intake, but it has a 625 afb on it. They ran Holley 1050 Dominator's back then. I don't think the 1150 came out till later. They did not have disc brakes either and he used the wrong wheels and tires from a modern day kit along with lots of roll cage from a modern day kit instead of making his own. But it looks good. The air cleaner is almost correct too. But what is it with the wing? IT looks too far forward at the base, and too tall and set back to far. Almost like he mixed a 1/24 with a 1/25 scale or something. IT just looks odd for some reason. Hey, PM me with a price on one of those Jo Hans and I'll see if I'm interested or not. Edited May 9, 2010 by dwc43 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy48 Posted May 9, 2010 Share Posted May 9, 2010 I'm doing NASCAR, or possibly a USAC Superbird from the JoHan kit, using the AMT GTX kit for the chassis. the JoHan kits can still be found and at a reasonable price, but it may take some time and research. also, you don't need an entire kit, only the body, nose and wing. just about everything else can be lifted from any one of these AMT kits: Dodge Superbee, Plymouth GTX, Plymouth Road Runner and any 68-70 Dodge Charger. best of luck to you with your build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 10, 2010 Author Share Posted May 10, 2010 A lot of things look funny about it, but I thought it was still a new looking build. The wing looked funny to me too. The cage is not correct, but to be honest, I haven't seen a single photo of what the cage is suppose to look like. All the photos I have collected are of the actual car on the track and you can't see anything or they are the museum cars which are not accurate replicas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 11, 2010 Author Share Posted May 11, 2010 Looking over the Monogram and the Jo-Han I am lost... There are parts in the Jo-Han that monogram doesn't include like the steel wheels, fire extinguisher, racing style dash, roll cage, etc... Many of these can be fabricated and look better then the Jo-Han kit. The Jo-Han offers decals, but I've seen better decals online. The Jo-Han also looks to be a smaller scale. Jo-Han's tires are wider then Monograms... Everyone loves these kits, but honestly, the body on the Jo-Han really bugs me. Something looks all wrong with it. A lot of the parts are inaccurate. So my question is, why is this such a sought after kit? Monogram's 1/24 Superbird is pretty basic as they come. Looks like a 440 ci, so no hemi. The top would need to be sanded down and the weld seam simulated somehow or another. I feel that this is an important detail on the superbird that is often overlooked. The vinyl top was only there on the street counterparts to cover up this ugly seam where the flush mounted window was installed. Also that reminds me; the interior seems to be the 70 GTX's interior. I'd wonder if the panel lines are correct for the Superbirds interior. Both kits would need a lot of custom parts and plastic surgery to look right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 11, 2010 Author Share Posted May 11, 2010 Ok I'm getting way ahead here sorry. Okay so lets talk motor. I need to find a 426 hemi that would be correct and most of all, have the right intake and air cleaner. Anyone know where I can find one? Ross Gibson Engines has an interesting RGE-204 Rat Roadster hemi that looks close, but not quite right... Also, if anyone has any pics of the cages used in 1970, please send them to me and I'll attempt to build one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 12, 2010 Author Share Posted May 12, 2010 They did not have disc brakes Are you sure about this? Disc breaks were a required package and not an option on all Superbirds according to "Mopar Muscle: 50 Years" by Robert Genat. That might have been for the street versions but I can not see the street versions having disc brakes but not the race cars. Doesn't make sense to me... but hey I'm not a nascar guy, I'm a muscle car guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 (edited) Are you sure about this? Disc breaks were a required package and not an option on all Superbirds according to "Mopar Muscle: 50 Years" by Robert Genat. That might have been for the street versions but I can not see the street versions having disc brakes but not the race cars. Doesn't make sense to me... but hey I'm not a nascar guy, I'm a muscle car guy. This is a 72 Dodge Charger that Petty drove. This is off of Marty Robbins Dodge Charger. If I am not mistaken the Hurst Airheart disc breaks came out in 74 along with the aircraft style dry breaks for the fuel cans. Other disc brakes at the time failed due to heat, so drums were used. http://www.airheart-brakes.com/ Edited May 12, 2010 by dwc43 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwc43 Posted May 12, 2010 Share Posted May 12, 2010 (edited) Edited May 12, 2010 by dwc43 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintageiron Posted May 14, 2010 Author Share Posted May 14, 2010 Jo-Han vs Revell... I want to stick with the Revell body. I don't care for the Jo-Han kit much... A few AMT kits come with a nice hemi to start with but the Revell kit is 1:24 and the AMT kits are 1:25... I'm concerned that if I use the AMT motor with a resin intake, carb, and air scoop, the scale difference might made it look funny... Do you think this will be a problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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